More Electric Range is What BMW i Sales Boss Wants

If you could pick the next product in the BMW i lineup, what would it be?

We put that very question to BMW North America’s Head of Electric Vehicle Sales and Strategy Jacob Harb and his answer was surprising.

It wasn’t a sports car, or a crossover. It wasn’t an electric scooter either. It was a car with more range.

Speaking to AutoGuide with his colleague Jose Guerrero, Product Manager and U.S. Product Planning and Strategy for BMW i, he thought at length when we posed the question to him.

“We’re spoiled. We can drive anything we want at the office. We have M4s and M3s,” he said. But no matter what fancy new BMW product he wants his i3 back.

The current i3 model is capable of roughly 80 to 100 miles of distance on a single charge. Unfortunately for the green car movement, that’s not enough for mainstream consumers to switch over to electric cars in droves.

For them, BMW offers a range extender gasoline engine for 150 to 180 miles of range, but at the cost of losing some green points.

As for when BMW is planning to give more range to its fully-electric models, Harb didn’t say. “Things will continue to evolve and improve like every other powertrain,” he said, hinting at gradual improvements year-over-year.

In the mean time, BMW is planning to make the current range more liveable by increasing access to charging stations. At next month’s North American International Auto Show the company will announce a plan to make 2015 “a year of infrastructure” installing new lower-cost quick-chargers “everywhere.”

Harb shied away from comments about future models that could join BMW’s fledgeling i brand and even downplayed some of the recent concept cars. “The i3 Coupe and i8 Roadster were there to demonstrate the modular platforms and how they can be easily adapted to other models,” he said. However, he did add that the are plenty of directions the company could head once it’s ready. “We do have i1 through i9 trademarked,” he said.